Outsourcing Rhapsody

Synopsis

He outsourced his own death. They outsourced the job... to a comically long chain of subcontractors. In this satire, a man's million-dollar "accident" is mistakenly designated a "vengeance killing" and passed down the ladder. Now, he must navigate a maze of corporate incompetence to cancel the hit,before it's bungled by the lowest subcontractor.

Outsourcing Rhapsody, a short film by Chinese filmmaker John Wang, presents a critical view of the corporate world. Belonging to this universe himself, the entrepreneur, who built his career in information technology and automotive engineering, inserts an insider's perspective into his self-penned screenplay. The plot primarily addresses the excessive use of outsourcing, revealing that, with each step of subcontracting, the compensation received by the service provider decreases. Consequently, their commitment may diminish, and the sense of personal authorship becomes weaker.

Directed by

John Wang

Office scene from the Chinese short film Outsourcing Rhapsody

In the film, a man burdened with debt contracts his own death through a large organization specializing in this type of service. This way, his family could receive funds currently frozen in a bank account and thereby settle all debts. However, the death must look like an accident, otherwise the money will not be released. Yet, that is not what happens, because the hired organization outsourced the job, the subcontractor outsourced it to another, this next one to a third, and so on. The script exaggerates this succession of outsourcing layers to emphasize the problems inherent in the practice. As in this story, the most severe outcome is that, during this process, the instruction to make the death look like an accident gets lost.

The appearance of a computer screen suspended in mid-air, akin to Minority Report (2002, Steven Spielberg), indicates that the filmmakers feel more comfortable framing this plot within the science fiction genre. By doing so, it avoids any allusion to real-world criminal factions that actually accept money to kill. Nevertheless, this is the sole element connecting the film to that genre. Everything else falls into black comedy and action. Outsourcing Rhapsody represents for business management what Adam McKay's The Big Short (2015) did for the stock market. That is, it reveals the specificities of a subject to the general public, but instead of glorifying it (which would be tedious), it critiques it.

In the film under review, the sharp humor relies both on the sheer number of subcontracts and on specific details (the facial recognition security scan that fails; the automated call center system that constantly asks you to hold). Surprisingly, this short film features action scenes, and well-shot ones at that, honoring the martial arts cinema tradition of its Chinese origin.

On the other hand, it is a 33-minute short film. Therefore, it is longer than most films in this format. This runtime allows Outsourcing Rhapsody to play with variations in pacing. As mentioned above, there are several action sequences that inject adrenaline into the experience. Yet, interspersed among them are comic and even dramatic sequences. The comic ones maintain a brisk pace, constructed through the use of many short shots filmed from different angles. Furthermore, the editing work is top-tier, standing out particularly for its excellent eyeline matches (which, it must be said, is made easier by the great performances of the professional cast). In the main dramatic scene, where the client and the contractor discuss their motivations, the pacing slows down drastically. Throughout virtually the entire film, there is an enormous amount of dialogue. The exception is the effective editing sequence that cuts through the various subcontracts resulting from the initial agreement.

The profusion of dialogue becomes somewhat problematic. Many lines involve technical jargon that does not contribute to the narrative and remains incomprehensible to the average viewer. For international audiences, there is the added grievance of the subtitles (in this copy submitted to the festival) being too small and white, making them illegible when overlaid on bright backgrounds. Concurrently with the excess of dialogue, and because of it, scenes feel overly long. In fact, once the point has been made, there is no reason to drag out the situation. This is especially true for the opening sequence (full of superfluous technicalities) and the dramatic conversation. Some attempts at comedy fail to land, such as the scene involving the blind man stepping off the elevator, which is neither funny nor logical (the man is blind, so why doesn't he say anything in response to what the protagonist says?). Besides, it is a type of humor that does not align with the black comedy the film proposes. It would be more effective to focus on satirical humor instead. For instance, by showing that each new subcontractor is less prepared than the previous one. Finally, the epilogue is a risky choice. It might provoke that familiar frustration found in movies that reveal everything witnessed was merely a dream. While justified as a warning that outsourcing is everywhere, it remains a narrative gamble.

Technically, Outsourcing Rhapsody is a professional film. There are no signs of amateurism in its execution. With a bit more care in the script's development, particularly regarding decoupage, John Wang could take on more ambitious endeavors. Having sounded here the alarm on the dehumanization and loss of quality resulting from outsourcing, he could next present his insider's vision regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence in the corporate world.